HSU Academic Senate considers rangeland and soils program elimination

With about 60 supporters of the Rangeland Resources and Wildland Soils program waiting Tuesday night, the Humboldt State University Academic Senate ran out of time before it could decide on the program's fate.

The senate will be deciding about eliminating the major, which was recommended for elimination by the provost and the Integrated Curriculum Committee, next week.

About a dozen students stood up at the end of the meeting hoping to be acknowledged for their support of the program despite the senate running out of time before their testimony could be heard. Senate Chair Saeed Mortazavi said students could send their comments to the senate in a written form.

After a presentation from the forestry department highlighting the program's unique role in the state's natural resources industry and its growth in the last year since the prioritization process began, nine members of the community were allowed a chance to express their support.

Jennifer Wheeler, a botanist with the Bureau of Land Management's office in Arcata and an HSU rangeland resources graduate, said HSU graduates dominate currently dominate the natural resources field and eliminating the program would be taking away a program that makes the university unique.

"The rangeland resources and wildland soils program is not duplicated anywhere in the state," she said.

The program is among 18 university programs being recommended to be cut or restructured.

Provost Robert Snyder had suggested that Rangeland Resource Science and Wildland Soils certifications, with about three dozen students, should be clumped into one program or be reduced to minors.

Snyder set up a task force to prioritize the university's programs in December 2007. Faculty, staff, deans, department chairs and program leaders used a set of criteria to rank 72 programs.

In late March, Snyder made his recommendations: The soil and range majors are unique, but its classes haven't seen significant enrollment, and they can't attract enough students to be "viable as degree programs."

The program's two faculty members argued that the program graduates have opportunity and experiences that can't be found elsewhere in the state. A presentation showed a 60 percent increase in enrollment since the prioritization process began.

As the state's only undergraduate program, rangelands resources and wildland soils play an important role as a community partner and in preparing students for maintaining sustainable ecosystems, professor Susan Marshall said via teleconference. Marshall is currently on sabbatical.

Deborah Giraud, of the Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF), said maintaining the quality of HSU's natural resources programs is important to the community. She said College of the Redwoods agricultural students, many of which come from local 4-H and Future Farmers of America programs, need a university to transfer to. HSU's program would be a natural and economically sound choice for many students, she said.